Dean Zapp, a third generation dairy farmer, and his wife Michele, wanted to protect the property where they operate Delapenta Farms — 83½ acres in Ancram, NY, in the central part of the Town of Taghkanic, in Columbia County — by adding conservation and affordability restrictions to their land, and to use proceeds from the sale of those restrictions to …

Simple Gifts Farm is a community-oriented organic vegetable and meat operation stewarding the North Amherst Community Farm (NACF) in Amherst, MA, with a long-term lease agreement that Equity Trust played an important part in helping to create. NACF brought in Jeremy Barker Plotkin and Dave Tepfer as farmers in 2006 and they run the farm as an ecological unit, integrating …

Several years ago a landowner in western Massachusetts discovered remnants of potentially significant prehistoric stone formations on land she has been restoring to its pre-Columbian state as a natural orchard. While she seeks to validate her observations and identify a long-term steward for the land, Equity Trust made a loan to enable her to purchase an adjacent property with additional …

Kroka Expeditionsis a wilderness education school in southern New Hampshire. The campus includes many acres of forest, stream, and hill, plus a three-acre organic farm where they grow a portion of their vegetables, berries, milk, and eggs. A loan from Equity Trust in 2016 enabled them to purchase and protect prime farmland nearby that was under threat of development, …

Three Springs is a twenty-year-old intentional community near the geographic center of California. It holds about 160 acres of land in common “to promote and demonstrate ecologically sustainable living and agricultural practices” and “to protect the unique flora and fauna of the Sierra Nevada foothills.” Members grow flowers and native plants to sell at farmers markets and to local restaurants; …

A new loan made in 2015 not only enables an evolution in a property ownership arrangement originally designed in part by Equity Trust, but also represents an innovation in our lending practice that could become a model for future projects. With the participation of project supporters recruited by the borrowers, Tryon Life Community Farm and the Cedar Moon collective, we …

The Coalition for Occupied Homes in Foreclosure (COHIF) is a Boston-based coalition of more than two dozen tenant, community, nonprofit, legal, and government agencies and organizations that came together in 2008 to work on keeping homeowners and tenants in their homes during and after the foreclosure process. It seeks to promote household and neighborhood stability and resident and community control …

The Reeves Home Place Farm, aka Whiskey Pigs Farm, is a 150-year-old seventh-generation family farm in the Little Sandy Mush region of North Carolina. They raise heritage cattle, pigs, and poultry on a beautiful and productive mountain pasture, supplementing the animals’ diet with whiskey mash from a local distiller. While they wait for an agricultural easement to be purchased …

Full and By Farm (the name is a nautical term referring to steering into the wind) is a CSA operation farming agriculture-only conservation land purchased from the Eddy Foundation in northern New York. When farmers Sara Kurak and James Graves launched their farm, the land and infrastructure were suffering from years of neglect, but with big dreams and hard work …

The Woodland Community Land Trust operates in an impoverished Appalachian community in northeastern Tennessee, where access to land and political and economic power has been tightly controlled by a few major extractive companies. For almost forty years, Woodland and its sister organizations, Woodland Community Development Corporation and Clearfork Community Institute, have acquired 450 acres of land and become involved in …

Sometimes we take on challenging loans – because the projects they support are innovative or intriguing, or because conventional lenders are wary of financing them – and usually we (and our borrowers) are rewarded. But they don’t always work out as planned, so we strive to be flexible enough to come up with a satisfactory alternative …

Rocky Corner Cohousing will be the first cohousing community in Connecticut and will include nine affordable units among the thirty planned, as well as commercial agricultural land that could be made available on long-term leases using the Equity Trust model. Our loan finances predevelopment work necessary to secure a construction loan that will replace the coalition of acquisition and …

The Voluntown Peace Trust (VPT) is a nonprofit educational center and retreat dedicated to social change and sustainable living, occupying 57 acres in southeastern Connecticut near New London. It provides hospitality and resources to “people constructing alternatives to the violence of our age” and serves as the home of the Cooperative for Nonviolent Action (CNVA), a coalition of grassroots groups …

Stone Soup is a coalition of community groups, grassroots activists, and artists who came together in 2006 to serve a disadvantaged neighborhood in central Massachusetts through a variety of projects and activities – most notably the establishment of a community center that functions as a neighborhood anchor and safe haven for children and adults.

The Lockhart Family Farm is a small family farm in Caroline County, Virginia, dedicated to a triple bottom line of social and environmental returns along with profitability. In addition to heirloom vegetables, flowers, fruits, value-added products such as soaps and preserves, it raises heritage pigs and turkeys on a CSA-like model.

Co-op Power is a consumer-owned renewable energy cooperative operating as a decentralized regional network of autonomous Local Organizing Councils (LOCs) to “create a multi-class, multi-racial movement for a sustainable and just energy future.” Equity Trust’s loan will help Co-op Power, through the Southern Vermont LOC, develop a 30.6 KWP solar electric (photovoltaic) system on the roof of the brand new Brattleboro Food Co-op building in downtown Brattleboro, VT.

The New London (Connecticut) Homeless Hospitality Center (NLHHC) is a non-profit human services agency whose mission is “to serve as a bridge out of homelessness by helping our guests pursue their self-selected path to permanent housing.”
Begun as a coalition of citizens, faith communities, and service organizations, the Homeless Hospitality Center has operated a daytime hospitality center and overnight shelter since 2007, and also offers employment and health care assistance.

White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP)’s mission is to facilitate recovery of the original land base of the White Earth Indian Reservation, in northern Minnesota, while preserving and restoring traditional land stewardship, language fluency, community development, and spiritual and cultural practices. A key strategy is to purchase back land from non-Indian owners, and receive donated land. Currently only 10% …

Pie Ranch, a non-profit in San Mateo County, California, combines farming and education to “inspire and connect rural and urban people to know the source of their food, and work together to bring greater health to the food system from seed to table.” Equity Trust’s land acquisition loan, one of our largest in recent years, supports the purchase and permanent …

Riverland Farm is a certified organic CSA farm in Sunderland, Massachusetts growing a diverse array of certified organic vegetables for 400 member families, as well as for local grocery stores, and local producers of value added products. Equity Trust’s loan was used to renovate their tobacco barn to create a space for their farm office space and a vegetable washing, …

Equity Trust’s loan to the New Town Florist Club, in Gainsville, GA, enabled them to purchase four lots to build four CLT homes for low-income families as part of a long-term effort to strengthen and care for their community.

Sixty years ago, a group of African American women established the New Town Florist Club to provide aid to neighborhood families …

Jubilee House Community (JHC) is a non-sectarian faith based community that has that has been working in Nicaragua since 1994 through their nonprofit Center for Development in Central America. JHC has helped organize 1,600 small farmers into a cooperative business to market their organic crops, strengthening existing agricultural cooperatives and developing new ones.

Jeff and Annie Main have spent close to forty years developing their organic farm, Good Humus Produce, on 20 acres in Capay, CA. They have built a house and a barn on the property and their plantings include hedgerows of native trees that serve as windbreaks and a source of fuelwood, as well as 10 acres of annual crops, …

Holyoke Community Land Trust, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, provides quality homes to low-income families, with a commitment to increasing resident homeownership. Residents own their own homes, but the land beneath is held by the nonprofit, to ensure owner-occupancy and on-going affordability. Formed in 1992, after a recent several-year period of dormancy it was reinvigorated in early 2010. A cash-flow loan …

Alice Acres Farm and Greenhouses, a diversified 20-acre farm in Gales Ferry, Connecticut, received a loan from Equity Trust 2009 to strengthen the farming operation. Alice Acres offers a great variety of plants, flowers, fruits, vegetables, and animals, as well as educational fieldtrips for schoolchildren. 2009 was farmer Pete Bargmann’s first year operating a CSA, but it was such …

Real Pickles, a small Western Massachusetts business producing organic raw pickled products, received a loan from the Equity Trust Fund in 2009 to help finance a the purchase and renovation of an energy efficient processing facility. The purchase is enabling Real Pickles to expand its business and continue contributing to the local food movement.

Just Food is a non-profit organization that works to make fresh, locally grown food accessible to all New Yorkers by connecting communities and local farms with resources, support and one another. Since 1995, Just Food has promoted the creation and spread of sustainable food programs, including CSAs, community-run farmers’ markets, community gardens, and farm-to-food pantry programs. Just Food serves thousands …

H.O.M.E. (Homeworkers Organized for More Employment) in Orland, ME, was organized in 1970 when a local shoe manufacturer closed its doors. Under the leadership of Sister Lucy Poulin, H.O.M.E emerged as a craft collective to generate home-based work and market the products as a source of income for the women who had been doing skilled piecework for the company.

Whippoorwill Farm, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm serving some 400 families on Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts. Whippoorwill grows organic produce and flowers for its members, for local restaurants, and for sale at farmers markets. Equity Trust provided a cash flow loan to help the farm manage as it adjusts marketing strategies to changes in the island economy and …

Community of Hope is a non-profit organization, whose mission is to assist people recovering from substance-abuse. The loan was used as the down payment for the purchase and conversion of a multi-family house for use as transitional “sober” housing for women…

Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT) in Providence, Rhode Island, provides access to land, education and other resources so people in Greater Providence can grow food in environmentally sustainable ways and create community food systems where locally produced, affordable, and healthy food is available to all. SCLT manages a wide range of urban agriculture programs including youth and adult agricultural education, …

Windborne Farm operates a CSA in Ft. Jones, California that provides grain, beans, edible seeds, and cheese to 100 families. The crops are cultivated with a team of Fjord draft horses using biodynamic methods. Our loan financed start-up costs at a time when few people thought it would be possible to market grain using the CSA model. To our great …

The Food Project has been engaging young people in sustainable agriculture since 1991. Each year, 150 teenagers from Greater Boston and the North Shore of Massachusetts are engaged in meaningful work leading volunteers and growing food in Lincoln, Boston, Beverly, and Lynn. The produce from the farms is donated to hunger relief organizations, sold at farmers’ markets and through CSA …